2009 – Page 10 – William M. Briggs

Podcast Radio Show â€“ Episode #4: Belief in Climate Models

[podcast]https://www.wmbriggs.com/audio/wmbriggs_com_14oct2009_0004.mp3[/podcast] On today's episode: Science and skeptical bloggers A small article in last week's Science magazine frets that skeptical bloggers are teasing climate scientists over their failed predictions. Bloggers are…

Culture Fun

F train Blues, Michael Palin is proud, and some misuses of statistics

Just back from my trip. I'll go through the comments from last week's posts later today and catch up. Meanwhile, here are a few interesting stories. That F'ing train! You've…

Statistics

Podcast Lecture #1: Understanding Statistics and Probability

[podcast]https://www.wmbriggs.com/audio/wmbriggs_com_lecture_0001.mp3[/podcast] First lecture: I'm away to a conference this week, and so thought it would be fun to start a lecture series Understanding Statistics and Probability (this is posting automatically---I'll…

Culture Podcast

Podcast Radio Show – Episode #3: Call the Health Police!

[podcast]https://www.wmbriggs.com/audio/wmbriggs_com_07oct2009_0003.mp3[/podcast] On today's episode: What is health? Herr Mencken, the Sage of Baltimore: "a degree of adaptation to the organism's environment so nearly complete that there is no irritation." Health…

Culture

The Case of the Rape-rape Patrol: a 17th precinct mini-mystery

We last met Officer Hannigan and Sergeant Fitzgerald in The Case of the Missing Global Warming and The Age of Stupid "Sarge, we got a call." Officer Hannigan motioned to…

Statistics

About Half Will Not Pay Federal Income Tax: Plus, A Solution To This Unfairness

What's to stop a large bloc of voters from joining forces to create laws so that they get a free ride, that they, in effect, make everybody else pay their…

Podcast Statistics

Podcast Radio Show – Episode #2: The Limits of Human Knowledge and The Singularity

[podcast]https://www.wmbriggs.com/audio/wmbriggs_com_30sep2009_0002.mp3[/podcast] On today's show: Update 3 Oct: The show appears to be available on iTunes. Search Podcasts for "Briggs" under "Title." If anybody has difficulties downloading, please let me know.…

Culture

The Theory of Increasing Government Idiocy

In software, it's called feature creep. This is the bloat or encrustation that forms on a working computer program. It is caused by adding overly specific functions that originate with…

Cary D Cotterman on How To Tell How Much Of “IQ” Is Inherited & How Much Is EnvironmentDecember 15, 2025
I've observed seemingly vast differences in intelligence between singleton siblings raised in the same home (the gap from my wife…
NLR on How To Tell How Much Of “IQ” Is Inherited & How Much Is EnvironmentDecember 15, 2025
I appreciate the researchers putting a table with the specific people and their scores. The 1937 book which the first…
hudbwu on Academic Argues For Permissibility of Cannibalism, You RacistDecember 12, 2025
I'll just point out that there is nothing in the Catholic doctrine that prohibits cannibalism. I was quite surprised when…
Johnno on Academic Argues For Permissibility of Cannibalism, You RacistDecember 11, 2025
The cemeteries??? The hospitals themselves will weigh you and cut you up and auction you off just like the first…
John Pate on Class 74: Contra Effect SizesDecember 11, 2025
The big sticking point for me is that everyone assumes they are sampling from the Normal Distribution for no reason…